The Week Before Christmas

"'Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the school,
The children were acting like goblins and ghouls
Graffiti was drawn on the hallways and doors
The teachers thought they could not take anymore...."

This little ditty brought to you by the puddles of goo that are my students. Though things seem to have settled down a bit in terms of the major drama, the little misbehavior things are still going strong.

To fill in...the last few weeks have been filled with major violence and destruction. We had some major gang graffiti in our halls saying that there was going to be a Cryps attack on the Bloods soon, and that got the kids wound up. Then some Cryps tried to get in to the school, we had to hold the kids after hours, and they rioted and left (except the 10th grade, who miraculously believed me when I told them if they stepped into the hall I'd suspend them...), and a kid from the neighboring school got stabbed. On an interesting aside, my classroom neighbor Tom just about witnessed a shooting within that same hour at the Subway down the street...just moments after I'd left. Anyway, this led to metal detectors (where I don't think they actually caught any weapons, because kids are too smart to walk through packing, but they did confiscate pounds upon pounds of fast food...), fear, and the general sense that things were amiss.

Amidst all of this, I was trying to teach my kids about covalent bonding and Lewis dot structures...which, eventually, they sort of understood. The biggest problem I'm having in my class right now is continuity. Attendence is spotty, so continuing a lesson the next day requires about 20 minutes of catch-up, because any kid who missed is almost unbearable if I don't get them caught up. Ah, well. Add to that the fact that once again my worst class has gotten better and my best class is quick becoming my worst, and we're in the wonder of teaching.

The silver lining is that tomorrow is my last day before Christmas. I took 3 days of vacation because we're supposed to have class up until the 23rd, and I just don't want to be around trying to control a class as the other teachers give up and my kids get progressively more brain damaged. We had a test today which no one finished (I used to hate it when teachers gave tests that were too long!), and so we're continuing it tomorrow, and then Viva la Albuquerque!

Oh, a related New Mexico side note, for those of you who haven't heard...
1) When I arrived in Baltimore, the lady who works in our apartment office welcomed me to the United States, saying it was probably much cooler here than what I was used to.
2) Same lady, when I went to pick up a package, asked if I was glad I got out of Mexico before those hurricanes hit. I explained New Mexico to her...and the next day she asked me if I was from the part of Mexico where all that pretty turquoise jewlery is from. I just said, "um, kind of."
3) My children...Anthony B says, "I want to go visit Mexico or Puerto Rico." David B. "What's the difference? Oh, wait, don't they speak Puerto Rican where you're from, Ms. McCants?" So many things wrong with that statement...so I say "David, do I speak Puerto Rican?" "Well, no..." Ok then, we've decided that New Mexican's don't speak Puerto Rican. Next question, "Did your parents just run over the border and have you, then run back?" David, do I look like my parents are Mexican? "Well, no, that's why I asked if they just ran over the border..." I want you to think about what you just said....
4) After a variety of questions in my 4th period about why I don't speak Spanish, and what part of MEXICO I am from, we had an impromptu geography lesson...where I discovered that the half of my class who knew New Mexico was, in fact, a state in the union, thought it was under Louisiana.
Oh, how I love my state. Vive Nuevo Mexico!

I suppose that is all I have to share. You will get a better taste of my life if I post regularly about the completely absurd occurences in my classroom. Next I'll post a verbatim copy of the most outrageous write-up I've had to write. You'll love it. Now I'm off to pack, chase my kittens out of the closet, and clean the bathroom before Matt grounds me. Email me!